Mumbai: Although Virat Kohli and R Ashwin have been pivotal to India ’s rise to the top of the Test rankings, England coach Trevor Bayliss on Saturday made it clear that the Alastair Cook-led side won’t be solely focusing on two of India ’s best match winners.
“They are both very good players. But if we concentrate on just one or two players, it would be a wrong way to go about it. They (India) have got more than two very good players,” said Bayliss during England ’s media interaction at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai.
“The best part of our approach in the last of couple of years is we worry about what we are doing,” added Bayliss.
While Bayliss refused that Kohli is the only important player from the Indian camp in the five-match Test series starting in Rajkot on November, he admitted that having James Anderson back in the scheme of things is a boost for the side. The 34-year-old pacer had missed the two-match Test series against Bangladesh due to stress facture in the shoulder.
Not only Anderson’s experience will be significant for the side as the other bowlers can feed off his presence, his record against Kohli can play a big part in how England fare in the series. Although the Indian Test skipper has not put a foot wrong in the recent times, he has struggled against England in the longer format of the game. In the nine games, Kohli has 322 runs with the average of 20.12.
“When you get anyone with his experience and number of international wickets coming along, it is good for the squad. Not merely for his on-field performance, but his experience off the ground as well, talking to the young players,” said Bayliss when asked about Anderson ’s availability.
“While the lack of match practice is always a risk, if there’s one player that’s able to do that it’s Jimmy Anderson. He’s been around for a while and when you’ve played as much as he has it doesn’t take much to get back into the swing of things,” concluded Bayliss.
